Books published by BAR Publishing

Scottish crannogs are situated in wetland lacustrine or marine environments. While the so called "lake dwellings" situated in freshwater environments have been the focus of considerable, and growing, attention, those sites located in marine environments, especially Scottish firths, remain the poor relation and, as yet, have not been the subject of detailed analysis. In some ways this is surprising given the potential importance of firths as prehistoric transport routes. Such sites along firths may have acted as nodal points in postulated networks of coastal transport, exchange and trade. The paucity of research may in part therefore be explained by the relative rarity of marine crannogs and the apparent difficulties of researching on sites in the intertidal zone. This book sets out to examine the archaeological potential and palaeoenvironmental significance of the remains of marine crannogs in Scotland. Three key areas of marine crannog research were identified from the framework of this volume. The first was to record main site distribution, location and environmental change. The second objective was to assess the position of marine crannogs within the contemporary landscape and to evaluate how they relate to other sites in their regions. This has the result of integrating these sites into the archaeological landscape so that evidence of their function, from structural and artefactual evidence, may contribute to the reconstruction of past societies. The third broad aim of this work was to ascertain whether reliable dating evidence might be acquired from marine crannogs. Evidence is produced that is used to place the sites into their contemporary landscapes and the chronological framework of past societies.

Proceedings of a session from the 2001 Institute of Field Archaeologists annual conference, held at the University of Newcastle upon TyneThis volume is based on a session entitled 'Interpreting the Ambiguous' at the 2001 Institute of Field Archaeologists (IFA) annual conference at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is hoped that the 13 papers will be of value to anyone planning archaeological interpretation work in the near future. They range over large expanses of both space and time. While they vary considerably in terms of subject matter, they are all united by one basic aim: the desire to encourage people to think for themselves about the past.

Papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists Sixth Annual Meeting in Lisbon 2000This volume publishes a collection of papers inspired by the sessions on "The Archaeology of Fire" held at the 6th and 7th European Association of Archaeologists Conferences in Lisbon and Esslington in 2000 and 2001. In archaeological literature the number of studies on fire is minimal. In archaeological research fire seems to have been the forgotten phenomenon, all attention being focussed on material culture. The 15 papers here (covering the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age and regions from Scandinavia to Italy, Spain to the Black Sea) reflect on the approaches to the study of fire, as an essential phenomenon in human evolution. Included are studies of anthracology, ethnoarchaeology, field archaeology, symbolism, technology and experimental archaeology, whose ideas converge to some universals, such as the relationship of fire with environment, materials, human body, its quality of transformability, and its anthropological centrality.

This work uses what is known about the Neolithic (4000-2400 BC) pottery of Wales to create a history of the meaning and use of that material. It is divided into two parts. In a thought-provoking and original first section, the author deals with some aspects of the history of archaeology, philosophy and science, and attempts to draw these ideas together into a methodology suited to explaining the pottery of Neolithic Wales. The second section employs this methodology to tell the story of the pottery, studying examples from Llugwy in Anglesey to Tinkinswood on the Glamorgan coast. The work concludes with two detailed Appendices, tabling radiocarbon evidence and a summary of pottery traditions.

Section 1: Théories et Méthodes / Theory and MethodColloque / Symposium 1.7Acts of the XIVth UISPP Congress, Univeristy Liège, 2-8 September 2001Edited by Bertrand Mafart and Hervé Delingette with the collaboration of Gérard Subsol

This work not only seeks to explain the function and timing of the Cambodian earthwork sites but utilizes the circular earthworks as a case study in understanding the nature of adaptation and temporal affiliation of Neolithic open-air settlements across Mainland Southeast Asia. A further aim of the study is to understand the circular sites of Cambodia in the broader regional context of Southeast Asian prehistory. The earthwork sites, which also extend into what is now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, appear to represent a distinctive subset within a larger domain of sites having a circular morphology. The age, nature, and articulation of the Cambodian earthworks are examined to advance initial interpretations as to the degree of site community and the extent of group cohesion.

The central position of this study is that rural development in Crete under Roman rule (beginning 67 BC) was built upon traditional relationships of people to the land. It is argued that the productive forces behind agricultural subsistence may have altered little from Hellenistic times. The author supports this claim by examining a series of linked variables germane to a reconstruction of rural organization over the periods in question: settlement patterns, land tenure, land use, production activities, and spheres of economic interaction.

The cemetery at R12 was one of a number of Neolithic sites found by the Sudan Archaeological Research Society's Northern Dongola Reach Survey between 1993 and 1997 on the east bank of the Nile.

This book includes papers from the Symbolism in Rock Art session held at the XV UISPP World Congress, Lisbon, in September 2006.

In this work the author analyses the remains of the settlement of Cádiz (Spain) in the Phoenician and Punic period. Since the discovery of the masculine anthropoid sarcofagus in Punta de la Vaca (Cádiz) in 1887, the investigations into the Phoenician and Punic settlement of Cádiz have shown the magnitude of the site. This volume investigates the excavations made in Cádiz that show evidence of the Phoenician and Punic settlement of Cádiz that was occupied since the 8th century.

The Pythian Games are not as well known as the Olympic Games but were nonetheless important over a period of more than a thousand years of Greek and Roman history (c.580 BC to AD 395).

This detailed study of military medical practice on the western frontiers of the Roman army aims to discover whether legionary and auxilliary units were treated differently, whether local civilians were also treated by military doctors and if the soldier's location impacted on his medical treatment.

A lavish festschrift to John Onians with contributions by 28 distinguished academics. Any summary as to the direction of these contributions is, perhaps, best left to Martin Kemp and his affectionate preface, "Above all, he (John Onians) reminds us of the researchers', writers' and teachers' true mission, that is the need to be radical in both asking and answering questions, and above all for the historian of visual things to be instinctively radical in every act of looking."

Preface in EnglishUniversitat Autonoma de Barcelona

The focus of this work is narrow geographically but broad chronologically. It examines all major aspects of political and social history of the city of Abila (located in Northern Jordan, about three miles from the Yarmuk River valley which is the modern boundary between Jordan and Syria); evidence for habitation reaches back some 4,000 years. Two historiographical chapters are included, and the further important contributions of this work are its synthesis of seven seasons of excavations and the comparative information provided on Abila as a prominent city of the Decapolis.

This monograph (in the series Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology) compares lithic materials excavated from Shumai and Kakwa Lelash, two deeply stratified dry rockshelters located in the Mukogodo Hills of the Laikipia and Isiolo districts of Central-North Kenya. The analysis forms a key part of the reconstruction of the sequence of human occupation in the region back to the Middle Stone Age (c. 200,000 BP). Lithic components from these two sites are analyzed and compared in terms of their raw material, techno-morphological attributes, function, and styles.

This book examines passages in the Iliad and the Odyssey which present semantic or logical difficulties, and those that might be thought incoherent or inconsistent. Original Greek and author's own translations are given for these problematic passages and then each case is commented on.

This work presents the author's research on legal issues concerning archaeological heritage and indigenous rights in Argentina. The country has overcome the political unrest of the early years of the new millennium and the previous heritage laws were finally modified in 2003, although the terms of the new legislation are still a matter of debate and have produced a great deal of criticism. In the course of this period, a new chapter in the story of the three case studies included in the book - the 'Pucará of Tilcara', the 'Quilmes' Ruins' and 'Menhires' Park' - has opened. The Humahuaca ravine, where the 'Pucará of Tilcara' is located, was included on the World Heritage List in 2003; the concession of the Quilmes' Ruins has expired and the members of the Indigenous Quilmes community are campaigning to be recognized as partners in the management of the site; and all the menhires were relocated to a plot of land in El Mollar. The Menhires' Park itself no longer exists, yet the monoliths remain unprotected. The Northwest region of Argentina - where the three sites are located - has become an important tourist destination for national and international visitors thanks to the devaluation of the national currency and the improvement of the economic conditions among the local population. Consequently, changing winds are bringing new challenges for each of these sites, although much of their fate remains in the same hands. Nevertheless, their future - as well as that of the entire archaeological heritage in Argentina - is heavily dependent on a deeper understanding of the past and present circumstances of such sites. Finally, the goal of this book is to analyze the state of archaeological heritage management in Argentina, although many of the conclusions reached also provide clues to understanding contested heritage issues in many other countries, particularly those relating to the Third World.

There is a long-standing interest in use efficiency and evolution in prehistoric ground stone tool research. A design and performance analysis conducted with replica tools examines a number of milling tool performance characteristics, including use efficiency, ease of manufacture, and ease of maintenance, as well as their interplay in the design process. This analysis shows that raw material and use surface area affect use efficiency. A paradigmatic artefact classification documents the variation in prehistoric manos from archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Puerco Valley of New Mexico.

This work represents a study of the hunter-gatherer societies that occupied the Central Plateau of Santa Cruz, with a special focus on La María Archaeological Locality. The broad objective is to try and understand the technological organization of the groups which lived in this area between the final Pleistocene and the late Holocene, and by so doing provide a discussion on the issues relating to other aspects of the society, such as the economic and social strategies of mobility, the use of the space and the exploitation of economic resources implemented in the different periods studied. Other specific objectives include: to identify the environmental changes which occurred since the beginning of the first human occupation in the region; to establish the regional structure of lithic resources; to analyze the variability of the set of artefacts; to characterize the sequences of artefact production for each raw material; to analyze the design of the artefacts; to define the different ways lithic technology was organized in every temporal range; to understand if there were differential technical skills for each of these particular episodes; and, to analyze the different ways the region was occupied during these specific temporal contexts. Full Title: La organización tecnológica en grupos cazadores recolectores desde las ocupaciones del Pleistoceno final al Holoceno tardío, en la Meseta Central de Santa Cruz, Patagonia

This work is the definitive publication of the excavation that took place between 1977 and 1984 of several tombs by the French archaeological mission in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates): six tombs of Hafit type (first phase of the local early Bronze, about 3000-2700 BC) and two tombs of Umm an-Nar type (second phase of the early Bronze Age) - tomb M of Hili and tomb A of Hili north. Tomb M dates to the middle of the architectural sequence of the necropolis of Hili and is one of the rare tombs known for the middle of the 3rd millennium. Tomb A of Hili north, which is later, remains today a site of the first importance for the richness and variety of the discoveries made. It is an important landmark in the establishment of a regional chronology and its study has greatly enriched our perception of trade, on different scales. This work is the first of a series that will be published on the work carried out in the region of Al-Aïn by the French mission, which in 1999 became the French archaeological mission to the United Arab Emirates. The next two volumes will present the anthropological study of tomb N of Hili and the study of ancient technologies at Hili.

'The 'Ordos bronzes' are well known to collectors and many museums, named for the many finds in and around the Ordos plateau in north China. They are ...the subject of many catalogues and parts of catalogues of collections [and] have much to tell of contacts and of iconographic inspiration passing, in both directions, from China and from the Steppes... I am dealing with what are generally regarded as belt plaques, not the many animal-only 'Ordos bronzes' of various forms and attachments, which may have been applied to harness or dress or furniture, and which are equally numerous; nor with daggers and the like. The main series considered here (the 'Rope-border' plaques) ...begins with works of art of amazing intricacy of composition, combining a certain horror vacui with a desire to indicate all parts of the animal figures involved... The series takes us from over a century before the Qin dynasty 'unification' of China, well into early Han times, roughly from the fourth/third to first centuries BC. Coeval with them, especially in the later period, are other plaque series of different shapes and many of them far less ambitious. These represent more decidedly 'nomad art', even when their forms and iconography are employed for luxury items of some intricacy, of the type that reached Siberia, and which characterize Peter the Great's Treasure which had been assembled there, and whether or not some were made by the Chinese for their nomad rivals...Over the whole period studied the interfaces with the arts of Scythians and Sarmatians are apparent, and noted where important, but the subject is only part of the far wider phenomenon of Eurasian arts, a daunting subject. And like all 'art-historical' studies it carries a historical element involving the nature of relations between nomad and settled (to put it at its simplest), as well as the behaviour of owners/wearers. Many 'nomads' of the areas we visit were virtually 'settled', while among the 'settled' Chinese many lived a transhumance 'nomad' existence. I address this as best I can in the Conclusions, realizing that for many this should be the main reason for such a study. It is likely, however, in the face of the very plentiful material, that a mainly art-historical approach may lead more readily to conclusions of social and historical significance.' (From the author's Preface)

This study re-visits the Late Bronze Age stratigraphy, chronology and history of Tell Atchana (Alalakh) as recorded by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1930s and 1940s. The author offers both a detailed analysis of the material culture of Late Bronze Age Alalakh and a political history of the region following the destruction of the Level IV palace. The author elucidates the way in which the plans of Tell Atchana that Woolley published are to be interpreted, and the implications of so doing. Next the author establishes the correct location, absolute and relative, of the Level I temples, followed by an analysis of the stratigraphy of the Levels IV-0 temples. Based on the finds in each of the later temples, new data affords a detailed study of the find-spot of the statue of Idrimi, now newly attributed to Level IVB, the first half of the fourteenth century BCE, probably not more than a few decades after the death of Idrimi, king of Alalakh. The same stratigraphic analysis scheme is projected on all the features and structures of Levels V-0, making the author's approach to Late Bronze Age Alalakh significantly different than that found in previous literature, and significantly revises Woolley's 1955 Final Report and later studies. Detailed new phase plans for Levels VA-IB accompany this study and the work concludes by presenting consequential material culture data that leads to a proposed absolute chronology of the relevant strata at Alalakh, accompanied by a discussion of the history of Alalakh in the Late BronzeAge.

A study of the food supply of the Roman army and the local populations. Food provision, principally wheat, was in the hands of an institution known as Annona. This institution mainly oversaw the adequate supply of food supplies for the city of Rome (annona civica) and the army (annona militaris). Both were the beneficiaries of the redistribution system promoted by the emperors in terms of agrarian policy.

This volume is a collection of papers presented at the Association of Environmental Archaeologists conference in Exeter, 2006. The nine papers within this volume consider how social archaeological questions can be investigated utilising environmental remains.

An investigation into the prehistoric mining and metallurgy of the southwest Iberian Peninsular.

This book includes papers from Session C04, 'Technology and Methodology for Archaeological Practice: Practical applications for the past reconstruction', from the XV UISPP World Congress (Lisbon, 4-9 September 2006).

This volume presents the reader with a selection of installations for the production of wine and oil from Israel of the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. Many such installations have been found in Israel from earlier periods also but the peak in their development, in the number of installations found, in the technology used and in their variety is towards the end of the Byzantine period. Several factors combined to create this situation. This comprehensive study investigates their archaeological remains. The installations presented in this volume reveal the remarkable variety of techniques and devices found in one small section of the complicated mosaic of local technical cultures that were spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, each developing separately but influenced by and influencing the others. Even techniques such as the use of the screw developed in different ways in different regions. The extent and borders of these technical cultures are in many cases closely related to those of political entities changing in extent and character together with these. Thus the study of these ancient crafts not only reveals important aspects of ancient technology, economics and day to day life but mapping the variegated regional technical cultures contributes a new and independent delineation of ancient human geography.

This book includes papers from the session (Vol. 30, Session WS19) 'Rock Art and Museum' presented at the XV UISPP World Congress (Lisbon, 4-9 September 2006).

The objective of this research is to advance the understanding of the Egyptian Eastern Desert region petroglyphs by means of three steps: 1) To order and analyse the available data; 2) To compare the Eastern Desert petroglyphs with those of neighbouring regions and 3) To determine what the Eastern Desert petroglyphs can tell us about the people responsible for them. The study then moves towards an interpretation of the petroglyphs in terms of what they can tell us about the origins and development of Egyptian society.